Broek in Waterland 1

On Saturday 15 July 2017 I made another trip, this time through the province of North Holland. Very early I took the train to Amsterdam Central. There my journey through nine different places started with a bus ride to Broek in Waterland. When I got off the bus I walked through the small tunnel under the road only to discover that the post office was on the side I just stepped out of the bus. I walked back and a minute later I reached the small neighbourhood supermarket that held the post office. The datestamp was still in the box which meant I made the first impressions with this postmark.

Broek in Waterland is a town in the province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Waterland, and is situated about 8 km south of Purmerend and 8 km northeast of Amsterdam. In the 17th and 18th century, the town was a popular residence for merchants and seafarers from Amsterdam. Due to its monument status, much of its history has been preserved.

Many of the houses in the village date back to before 1850. Before 1940 there had been only limited housing development. This meant that many houses were divided to accommodate several families under the same roof. The church of Broek in Waterland was built before 1400 and was dedicated to Saint Nicolas. On 26 September 1573 the church was razed to the ground by Spaniards during the Eighty Years' War. In 1628 the inhabitants of Broek in Waterland started to rebuild the church on the foundations of the old building.

The pulpit was donated to the church in 1685 by a wealthy couple who were married there in 1641. It is made of ebony, rosewood and pallisander wood, which give it a dark colour and delicate texture. The church organ was built in 1832 by Wander Beekes. The church was extensively renovated in 1989. During this renovation, the original ceiling frescoes of cherubs and fruit garlands were rediscovered under old layers of paint.

Broek in Waterland was a popular vacation village for sea captains in the 1600s. The town has always been famous for its cleanliness. Many 17th and 18th century travel books of foreign travellers mentioned the cleanliness and tidiness of the village. The extreme cleanliness of Broek in Waterland led French visitors in the first half of the eighteenth century to dub this dairying village "le temple de la propreté hollandaise".

Broek in Waterland was a separate municipality until 1991, when it was merged with Waterland.

City/town:         Broek in Waterland

Municipality:     Waterland

Area:                10,70 km² (Waterland 115,66 km²)

Population:       2.728 (2018) (Waterland 17.306, 1 January 2019)

Website:           waterland.nl

Post office

't Winkeltje Wals-Schokker

Zuideinde 15

1151 CN  BROEK IN WATERLAND

Date sent: 15 July 2017

Date postmark: 15 July 2017

Date received: 18 July 2017

Number of days: 3

Envelope in collection: 234

IJmuiden 1

On 17 June 2017 the Harbour Festival was held in the coastal town of IJmuiden. I went there to visit the former HMS Naaldwijk, a minesweeper from 1955. It was of course named after our town of Naaldwijk and the municipal council of Westland decided in 2016, on my proposal, to sponsor the ship for 5000 euro. So I wanted to see how the ship was doing. Of course I stopped at the local Primera for a datestamp. The stamps I used were the North Sea pier at IJmuiden, destroyed in 1869, from the series 'The Netherlands and the water' and the provincial flag of North Holland from 2002.

IJmuiden is a port city in the Dutch province of North Holland and is the main town in the municipality of Velsen. It is located at the mouth of the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam, and lies approximately 17 kilometres north of Haarlem. The internal capitalization in the city's spelling is because IJ is a digraph in Dutch, and is therefore sometimes considered to be a ligature, rendering it a single letter. The port of IJmuiden is a deepwater port suited to fully laden Panamax ships, and fourth port of the Netherlands.

In the Roman era, this Velsen district was already inhabited, and archaeological finds at the impoldered lake of Wijkermeer indicate there was a North Sea port of some regional importance built here. Present day IJmuiden includes four harbors: the vissershaven (Ship's code IJM), a fishing dock (visafslag), the haringhaven, the IJmondhaven and the Seaport Marina IJmuiden, a harbour for pleasure craft. IJmuiden became the largest fishing port of the Netherlands after the island of Urk became closed in by the Afsluitdijk. The town suffered heavy damage and demolition during World War II, because of its maritime importance.

City/town:         IJmuiden

Municipality:     Velsen

Area:                63,05 km² (Velsen)

Population:       67.585 (Velsen, April 2017)

Website:           velsen.nl

Post office

Primera Prince

Planetenweg 62

1973 BH  IJMUIDEN

facebook.com/Primera-IJmuiden-Prince

Date sent: 17 June 2017

Date postmark: 17 June 2017

Date received: 20 June 2017

Number of days: 3

Envelope in collection: 181

Post office photo not yet available. :-(